Title:

Winter Phoenix: Falling Snow

Chapter:

Two – Slow Down

Disclaimer:

I do not own Bleach of Inazuma Eleven.

Summary:

Hitsugaya Toshiro is sent to the world of the living with Matsumoto. There, Endou manages to have Hitsugaya join the soccer club, but will he stay or will he abandon the team on their path to winning the FFI? Will he finally open up or will he shut them out? Is his mission even legit? And why does everyone try to make him love soccer? And what does the rest of Soul Society think of Toshiro's new sport?

Author's Corner:

The first thing I want to say is sorry! I know I said I was going to update sooner, but I didn't have as much time as I first thought. I am really sorry! I really hope this makes up for being late, I don't think it will, but I hope you enjoy Chapter 2 anyways.

Announcement:

Happy Birthday to Girl With a Golden Heart! Her birthday was March 21, and I dedicate this chapter to her! I hope you enjoy it!

Hitsugaya Toshiro was awake. At three in the morning. Why is he up at three in the morning you ask? Simple. Matsumoto. He didn't know what possessed her to barge into his room at three in the morning to tell him that she wanted to go shopping tomorrow while he was gone. He thought he was going to need to search for a new Lieutenant before the mission was finished.

Instead of lying in his bed, where he knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep again, he decided to get up and start the day early. Real early. He debated whether taking a cold shower, to wake his senses, or taking a hot shower, which would leave Matsumoto without any. He finally decided on the former.

Grabbing a clean set of clothes, Toshiro headed to his bathroom connected to his room. Letting the water adjust to his level of coolness, he stepped in and let the water soak his body. After twenty minutes, he stepped out and toweled himself. Securely fastening the towel around his waist, Toshiro turned the knob all the way. He let the hot water run while changing his clothes, running a brush through his hair, and brushing his teeth. After several, long, minutes of letting the hot water run, Toshiro turned it off with a slight smirk knowing he had won.

After cleaning up his and Matsumoto's breakfast, Toshiro went about gathering all of his equipment needed for today's meeting. He decided to leave early, resulting in getting there earlier. Walking out the door Toshiro shouted to Matsumoto, "Don't spend too much money Matsumoto!" His voice was icy and held a hidden threat beneath. He idly wondered if she was even paying attention. Oh well, it was her paycheck.

Walking down the street, Toshiro saw Endou . . . and someone following him. Watching amused as the two chase each other. Endou finally noticed the mysterious person and caught him; he noticed Toshiro himself. Walking quickly to his newfound friend, Endou excitedly greeted him. "Did you get a letter saying to meet at the school too? That's great! We'll definitely be playing more soccer together! Exciting! Oh, this is Toramaru Utsunomiya. He was following me; he said he was told to come to Raimon Jr. High! Are you going too?"

Toshiro nodded, "I'm Hitsugaya Toshiro, nice to meet you Toramaru."

"It's nice to meet you too Hitsugaya! I hope we will become teammates in the future. Along with Endou! I've heard of your legendary skills! I can't wait to see them in action!" Toramaru said all in one breathe. He bowed politely to the older soccer players.

The three, Hitsugaya said at least two sentences, talked while walking to their destination. Rounding the final corner, they spotted the school. Putting their shoes next to the others, they opened the door and entered. All of the club members were already here. There were two new people who were standing against opposite walls. As Endou walked in, many of his teammates greeted him. "Endou!" Kazemaru's voice broke through the chattering. "Do you know where Coach Hibiki is yet?"

He was right. Everyone seemed to be here except the coach. They all had questions that they wanted answers to. "I thought he would have been here already." No one said anything else. Toshiro thought they all looked jumpy; kids these days. None of them seemed patient enough to wait for a little bit.

Toshiro watched as Kido talked to another soccer player who just entered. Toshiro didn't know the new player, but guessed he was someone who the club played against once. There were others who walked in. One who caused trouble and tried to pull a prank on himself. One who had spiky, light pink hair. Someone called out to the new player, "Hey Tsunami! Long time no see!" The one named Tsunami waved back and shouted back. After that, the room got quiet again.

The door opened up and Coach Hibiki walked in. The room suddenly went quiet; everyone was waiting for an answer to why they were here on a Saturday morning. The coach looked around, making sure everyone was here. "You have all been chosen to participate in the selection match for the Football Frontier International Japan's team. You may notice some other participants from different schools; this team will be made up of different individuals from different places around Japan. Not just one school. I will divide you into two different groups and you will have a practice match. While you are playing, I will be evaluating your performance. At the end, I will tell you the international team for Japan."

Toshiro understood what the coach wanted, but couldn't understand why not chose the team without making them 'practice'. Toshiro thought the coach already knew who he was going to pick right now; maybe he just wants to make them work harder for it. That sadistic bastard. As Aki called out the two teams, Toshiro thought about if he should throw the game on purpose. It wasn't like he wanted to play soccer with a bunch of kids. Who's worse, Matsumoto or a bunch of Jr. High students?

"Toshiro Hitsugaya team B!"

He slowly walked to his assigned group. Kido and Gouenji waved at him while he stopped and stood by Kido. As Aki kept reading off names, Kido and Toshiro kept up an interesting conversation of hissastsu techniques. He had no idea what Kido was talking about, but decided not to stop the conversation just to announce he had no idea what they were talking about. That would just be rude.

Finally there were two groups, A and B. He was placed on team B; he knew some of them, but most of them were more of a stranger than the next. It's not like he knew the others all that well to begin with. He was glad this team was only temporary; if he had to deal with Kido and Fudo's arguing, they weren't going home alive.

It turned out, Toshiro didn't have to worry about the two. He found out that he got woken up at three in the morning, just to stand around for about an hour or so, have the coach tell him which team he was on, only to be told to go home and come back two days later. Oh yeah, Toshiro Hitsugaya was mad. He just wanted to get away from the crazy school before any other surprises were announced.

Toshiro was pleased to come home to silence. Matsumoto probably thought he was going to be gone all day. Good. That means she planned to be gone all day. Now he'll be able to get some of the paperwork he brought done.

He quickly made his way to his suitcase and took out the paperwork and set about to finish it. It took until the time Matsumoto barged through the front door. "Captain! I'm home! Shopping was great, you should have come! No matter, I bought you something too!"

Rolling his eye at his loud lieutenant, he signed the last paper and put it on top of the others. He stretched his cramped muscles and descended down the stairs. He saw quiet a funny sight. Where his lieutenant should have been were arms packed with various color of bags. The arms set the bags on the floor and he saw Matsumoto cheerful and preppy.

"Sooo, how was your little meeting?" Her voice was sly.

"One you should have been at instead of shopping all day." A vein popped at the mention of the bags upon bags covering the entire floor.

"Buuutt Captain! You were the one who said I could go!"

"When have I ever told you that you could be shopping all day?" His brow twitched.

"This morning of course!"

"When you woke me up at three!" He was now in full twitch mode.

"You weren't going to sleep any later! You usually don't." Matsumoto couldn't have been more wrong.

"Yes, but I usually don't have to babysit Jr. High students or spend time at soccer practice!" He had to work hard not to yell at the all too relaxed Matsumoto, "And why were you up at three in the morning?"

"I had gotten back late from delivering the message to the Head Captain. Time is different between here and there, you should know that Captain."

While sighing, the small Captain tried desperately to rid himself of the painful headache he had received during the conversation, "That's a lie Matsumoto," his voice was barely above a whisper, "you and I both know that, but sense I am in no mood to deal with whatever it is you're planning, I will let it go. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to bed."

The icy Captain finished his crisp dialogue; making sure to let his subordinate know he knew she was up to something but was too tired to mess with it. He made his way across the room after returning his paperwork, he stopped short of the door, "Don't wake me up before seven." He continued his way to his bedroom; wanting nothing more than to sleep his headache away. Hopefully this nightmare dubbed mission would disappear too.

Two days passed without any major ordeals or excitement. Toshiro managed to only yell at Matsumoto four times, a day, and Matsumoto only snuck out three times, every five hours, but the two were doing fairly well.

Matsumoto was practically jumping with joy. She'd finally be able to see her small Captain play soccer! She couldn't wait to see how amazing he was, because she knew every Captain was amazing at everything! It was a part of being a Captain. It was like a rule.

The last time she visited the world of the living, she only made it in time to see the children her Captain had gotten to play with. She also saw the girl Toshiro was stalking. Who turned out to be none other than Ichigo's sister. Wouldn't it be so cute if they did end up dating? But wait, what about Momo? I always thought Toshiro and Momo looked so great together.

She decided to stop her small debate and help her Captain. Checking her Captain's uniform yesterday, she approved of the style and couldn't wait to see her Shiro in such an adorable outfit. He would look so much like a little kid, she just couldn't keep her excitement hidden any longer.

Matsumoto almost squealed out loud when she did see her Captain in his uniform. She wanted to jump around and hug her Captain to death, no pun intended, and just squish him. Too bad he would hide all of her sake if she did.

Toshiro couldn't believe he was wearing such an outfit like this. Heck, he still couldn't believe he was here in the world of the living playing soccer with kids. He wouldn't have believed if he hadn't been standing here with the ridiculous uniform on. Of course Matsumoto being Matsumoto, she was enjoying his pain and misery.

He had long since decided to leave the house early; in order to ditch Matsumoto. Sadly, Matsumoto was keener than she looked and was ready faster than normal.

So here they were now, walking down the street. An odd pair they made, but no one stopped to bother them about it. They soon reached Raimon Jr. High and Toshiro was whisked away to soccer land.

The whistle blew and the game began. It was the other team's kick off. Toshiro was placed a middle fielder and could both defend and attack when needed. He couldn't care less what he did; he was efficient in both to be highly qualified in either.

The game passed quickly for him, which he was very glad of, and soon it was all over. Toshiro himself had managed to steal the ball from, who he believed was named, Hiroto and dribbled down the field. Dodging all the defenders, Toshiro swung his back leg up and striked down. Curving his ankle slightly, a movement invisible to the human eye, the ball curved slightly passed Endou's fingertips and into the goal. The final score was 2-2; a tie.

Of course, since it was a tie, the majority of the team, along with the crowd, wanted another round to break the tie. Of course, they were denied. To be blunt, Toshiro enjoyed taking action in this game. Even though he would never admit it out loud and would freeze you over if you dare even suggest it. But he would have liked it better if he wasn't being yelled at -ahem- supported, loudly, by Matsumoto the entire game.

He would have enjoyed it so much better.

Now it was the moment of truth. It didn't matter if you had skill or played well with others, if you had a crappy game today, your chances were lowered by just that much. The new coach didn't seem to like to play 'favorites'; which Toshiro liked. He didn't know the man and would be happy if he would cut Toshiro, but because the whole world was out to get him, along with the dead, he knew Kami wouldn't allow something simple like that to happen.

/:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:\

The teams had been recently announced and the shock and disappointment hung in the air like a heavy curtain. Some hid it better than others and then some acted as if they were seven. Children.

After the announcement, Toshiro had stayed back to talk to the coach; he needed to clarify something. While on his way towards the two coaches and a group of soccer players, he couldn't help but overhear-

"And you will be our forward, you will be the key to our victory." Coach Hibiki announced.

Toshiro didn't have a clue as to what the two coaches' were talking about, that was until he saw him walk away.

His announcement was unexpected, at least Hitsugaya thought so. He wondered why. Why? Does he want the team to unravel from the inside? He must be crazy? This-this is impossible! No, never could this be done: never.

"If Coach Hibiki says that is our key to victory, then I agree with him!" Endou shouts out and soon everyone is agreeing with him.

Fools. This will be your personal demise. It will be your downfall. Trusting in-

Author's Rant At The Bottom(:-

Hey everyone! I hope you didn't wait too long for this update! I haven't had enough time to just sit down and write. Anyways, I hope the next update will come much sooner than this one did. I hope you have a great weekend and week!

I probably won't have it up until next week, at the earliest. I hope you can wait and keep reading!

ForeverNever-13